Right now it’s Sunday night and I have been through my first official week in medical school, granted it was the introductory week. If I had to describe my feelings at this moment in one word it would be – excited. If I were to be less concise, it would be that I am so happy and excited my eyes are filling up with tears. Anyone who knows me personally will know how hard I’ve worked to get here and how much I want to be here. So I make no apologies for my sickening levels of happiness and excitement right now.

My week consisted of getting to know the university, the staff and the societies/sport clubs. The first thing I have noticed about my school is how friendly and approachable the lecturers and administrative staff are! Everyone seems really keen on helping us to succeed, which is really reassuring. We received a talk by Professor Steve Peters a leading sports psychologist, which centred around the importance of our emotional health. Peters has a chimp model that he uses to explain the reasons behind some of our impulses and how to better control them. He outlines this theory in his book ‘The Chimp Paradox‘ if you wanted to find out more, you can also get a brief overview with a quick wiki search 😉

One of the main highlights from the week was talks from various specialist doctors, who gave an overview of their journeys and honest insights into their specialty. I found this very useful, firstly because not all of their journeys were linear. Its reassuring to know that within a 40 year career as a doctor it is possible and perhaps even encouraged to change specialties. Secondly, it highlighted some areas of medicine that don’t immediately come to mind, for example a psychiatrist that specializes in eating disorders!

During this week we were also allocated medic families, a ‘mum’ and ‘dad’ from older years as well as a brother and sister within the year. A great idea to help us form support networks for the next few years.

My school runs a Give It A Go programme, the idea is that you can try out all sorts of new sports and activities without necessarily joining the societies. its a great way for the societies to get themselves known and put forward what they care about and its great to help find out what your next passion might be. So far I’ve tried my hand at making lavender scented owls (yes, you read right!), cheer-leading and bouldering! I’ve also taken part in a park run – a 5km run that pits you against the clock! Stay tuned to find out what I get up to in the next week!

It has been an amazing first week, I hope to remember these feelings of eagerness, anticipation and passion especially when things get tough. Until next time…